Log In
Log In
Six modules · 2027–2029 syllabus · taught by seven simulacra
Economics is the study of how scarce resources are allocated among unlimited wants. Cambridge IGCSE Economics 0455 builds from the first principles of scarcity and opportunity cost through the mechanics of markets, the decisions of households, workers and firms, the instruments of macroeconomic policy, the dynamics of development, and the theory and practice of international trade. Every module is taught by the economist whose intellectual contribution is most directly at stake.
Adam Smith Simulacrum opens with the basic economic problem — the author of The Wealth of Nations who first made scarcity and specialisation systematic. Alfred Marshall Simulacrum covers the allocation of resources — the man who drew the demand and supply diagram and invented elasticity. Druckerian Management Simulacrum teaches microeconomic decision-makers — money, banking, households, workers, firms and their costs. John Maynard Keynes Simulacrum leads the macroeconomy, with Milton Friedman Simulacrum joining for monetary policy and inflation — the two sides of the twentieth century's great policy argument, taught in genuine intellectual tension. Joseph Schumpeter Simulacrum covers economic development — creative destruction as the engine of growth, unequally distributed. Hayekian Markets Simulacrum closes with international trade and globalisation — the price mechanism as a global information system, and trade restrictions as the attempt to override it.
Adam Smith Simulacrum
The nature of the basic economic problem; the concept of scarcity and examples for consumers, workers, firms and governments; economic goods versus free goods; the three resource allocation questions; the four factors of production (land, labour, capital, enterprise) with rewards (rent, wages, interest, profit); causes of changes in quantity and quality of factors; opportunity cost with examples for each actor; and the complete PPC diagram — drawing, points inside/on/beyond the curve, movements along it, and outward and inward shifts with their causes and consequences.
Open module →Alfred Marshall Simulacrum
Demand and supply diagrams in full — movements versus shifts, causes and consequences; the price mechanism as the answer to the three economic questions; market equilibrium and disequilibrium; shortages and surpluses; PED and PES formulas, calculations and diagrams across all five values; determinants of each elasticity; the effect of PED on consumer expenditure and firm revenue; market economic system advantages and disadvantages; causes and consequences of market failure (public goods, merit goods, demerit goods, externalities, monopoly); and the evaluation of government interventions including maximum prices, minimum prices, taxation, subsidies, regulation, privatisation, nationalisation and quotas.
Open module →Druckerian Management Simulacrum
The forms, functions and characteristics of money; central bank and commercial bank roles; five influences on household spending and saving; wage and non-wage factors in occupation choice; labour market diagrams including minimum wage; reasons for wage differences by skill, sector and discrimination; labour mobility; division of labour; firm types and merger types (horizontal, vertical, conglomerate); economies and diseconomies of scale with ATC diagrams; all six cost measures (TC, ATC, FC, AFC, VC, AVC) with calculations; TR and AR; firm objectives; and comparative analysis of competitive markets versus monopoly.
Open module →John Maynard Keynes Simulacrum · Milton Friedman Simulacrum
Six macroeconomic aims and three conflicts between them; government budget calculations; reasons for spending and tax classifications (progressive, regressive, proportional; direct, indirect); fiscal policy measures and effects. Supply-side policy measures and their macroeconomic effects. Economic growth measurement by real GDP; causes and advantages and disadvantages of growth; recession causes and consequences. Unemployment — all four types, the labour force survey, unemployment consequences and policies. Inflation — CPI measurement, demand-pull and cost-push causes, consequences for savers, lenders, borrowers, firms and the economy, and policies to control it.
Open module →Joseph Schumpeter Simulacrum
Real GDP per head and HDI compared as living standard indicators — advantages and disadvantages of each; absolute versus relative poverty defined and distinguished; five causes of poverty; six policies to alleviate poverty and their mechanisms. Population dynamics: birth rate, death rate and net migration definitions and causes of variation; optimum population; the effects of population size increases, decreases and ageing on the economy. The eight causes of international differences in economic development — income, productivity, population growth, sectoral composition, saving and investment, education, healthcare, and natural resources.
Open module →Hayekian Markets Simulacrum
Country specialisation and comparative advantage; free trade advantages and disadvantages; globalisation causes and effects on trade, competition, environment, migration, income distribution and development; MNC impacts on host and home countries. Four trade restriction types (tariff, quota, subsidy, embargo) with eight reasons for their use, consequences for home country and trading partners, and advantages and disadvantages of restriction. Floating exchange rate determination by demand and supply; appreciation and depreciation; causes of fluctuations and consequences for export and import prices. Current account structure (goods, services, primary and secondary income); calculation of current account balance; causes and consequences of deficits and surpluses; and policies to achieve balance of payments stability.
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